Babu Jagdeo Prasad (2 February 1922 – 5 September 1974), alternatively spelled as Jagdev Prasad and popularly known as Jagdev Babu, was an Indian politician and a member of the

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated ...

who served as Bihar's deputy chief minister in 1968 for four days in the

Satish Prasad Singh Satish Prasad Singh (1 January 1936 – 2 November 2020) was an Indian politician. He was the Chief Minister of Bihar for a very brief tenure of just five days in 1968. Biography He was a member of Koeri community and his daughter Suchitra Sinh ...

cabinet. A

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and a proponent of Arjak culture, he was the founder of Shoshit Dal (later Shoshit Samaj Dal) and was a staunch antagonist and critic of India's

caste system Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...

. He was nicknamed as the "

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

of Bihar".

Life

Prasad was a member of the Dangi, subcaste of the

Koeri The Koeri (spelt as Koiry or Koiri) and also referred to as Kushwaha and Maurya in several parts of North India are an Indian non-elite caste, found largely in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, whose traditional occupation was agriculture. Accordi ...

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...

, and was referred to as the "Lenin of Bihar" due to his charisma. He led the Shoshit Samaj Dal and during the early 1970s, at the height of the caste tensions known as the

Bihar Movement The JP movement also known as Bihar Movement was a political movement initiated by students in the Indian state of Bihar in 1974 and led by the veteran Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, against misrule and corruptio ...

, he was able to attract much support from both members of the

Other Backward Class The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with Forward caste, Gen ...

es and the

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a ...

s in their opposition to upper-caste landlords. Jagdeo Prasad's son,

Nagmani Nagmani Kushwaha (born 15 Jan 1953) is an Indian politician from Bihar and Jharkhand. He is the son of another Bihar politician Jagdeo Prasad, in whose party Shoshit Samaj Dal, Nagmani started his career. He has served as an MLA for Kurtha as w ...

is a veteran politician who started his career from his father's party itself. He later joined Rashtriya Janata Dal and remained minister in RJD government. The former Chief Minister of Bihar,

, who held the office for shortest tenure in Bihar's history as a nominee of Shoshit Samaj Dal, was brother in law of Jagdeo Prasad.

Career

Born in Kurtha village, Jahanabad district of Bihar; Jagdeo Prasad went to Jahanabad town for higher studies. He further moved to

Patna University Patna University is a public state university in Patna, Bihar, India. It was established on 1 October 1917 during the British Raj. It is the first university in Bihar and the seventh oldest university in the Indian subcontinent in the modern er ...

, from where he pursued his post graduation studies. Jagdeo is said to have revolutionary mindset since his early childhood as in his adolescence, he fought to end prevailing practices like "Panchkathia System", in which farmers had to leave ''5 katta'' of their land for the elephant of landlord to graze. Later, he came into contact with Chandradeo Prasad Verma, who persuaded him to study the political philosophers to know the prevalent societal condition in depth. Jagdeo agreed and soon he became sympathetic to idea of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

. Later, he joined

Samyukta Socialist Party Samyukta Socialist Party (; SSP), was a political party in India from 1964 to 1972. SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) in 1964. In 1972, SSP was reunited with PSP, forming the Socialist Party. The General Secr ...

and in the days of ideological wars between

Ram Manohar Lohia Ram Manohar Lohia ; (23 March 1910 – 12 October 1967) was an activist in the Indian independence movement and a socialist political leader. During the last phase of British rule in India, he worked with the Congress Radio which was broadcast s ...

and

Jayprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for le ...

, he chose to go with Lohia. Jagdeo also became editor of the magazine of

SSP SSP is an abbreviation that may stand for: Arts and entertainment * Silversun Pickups, an American alternative rock band *Super Sonic Power, a line of toys by Kenner Products in the 1970s Companies *E. W. Scripps Company, stock symbol *SSP Grou ...

called ''Janata''. Later he moved to

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

and started editing two more magazines ''Uday'' and ''Citizen''. His ideas brought great fame to the magazines but he had to face intimidation from orthodox section of society. This led him to leave the magazine and move to

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

once again. Though, initially he remained an active member of SSP, he later realised that the fruits of labour of many are reaped by few in the party and given his ideological difference with Lohia, he resigned and formed a new party called Shoshit Samaj Party (SSP). He also remained active member of Arjak Sangh, a platform led by Ramswaroop Verma. The Shoshit Samaj Party was more a revolutionary organisation than a political party as it urged the landless labourers to grab the lands of landlords, a practice which gave rise to a number of caste armies and private senas in Bihar. Due to his critic of upper caste dominance, Prasad many a times is branded as Anti- forward caste. He remained

Deputy Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

of Bihar for a brief period of time when SSP was at peak. Prasad was called as Bihar's Lenin in his lifetime due to his radical views, he also coined the politically radical slogan of:

Death

Prasad was killed by police on 5 September 1974 while leading a protest involving 20,000 people. There have been claims that his death was ordered by a minister in the

Government of Bihar The Government of Bihar, known locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Bihar and its 9 divisions which consist of 38 districts . It consists of an executive, led by the Governor of Bihar, a ju ...

, although police said that the protesters were not peaceful, as claimed, and instead were armed.

Vinayak Prasad Yadav Vinayak Prasad Yadav (died 7 January 2002) was an Indian politician. He was a Member of Parliament, representing Saharsa (Lok Sabha constituency), Saharsa, Bihar, in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament of India, India's Parliament, as ...

, then a member of the

, resigned from the Legislative Assembly of Bihar in protest of this killing at Kurtha.

Life

Career

Death

References

Further reading